Why Blockchain is Big in 2017

Whilst a couple of years back everyone was convinced that Bitcoin was the next big and life changing thing what people have now realised is that the underlying software for Bitcoin- that being Blockchain, is the next big thing. For those who aren‚Äôt aware, Blockchain is effectively a digital platform that records and verifies transactions so that they cannot be erased or tampered with. Whilst this may seem like a basic and boring piece of technology it is only in the past couple of years that big companies have started to realise and explore the potential of the software. As a result people are now becoming very excited about Blockchain and the question is, why? Well, here we have concisely listed the key reasons that people believe this is where the future is.

Blockchain‚Äôs ability to prevent any future payment scams is currently one of the biggest reasons everyone is talking about it. It provides a platform where both buyers and sellers are protected by smart contracts. These smart contracts mean that a seller has to follow through with the transaction and that payment cannot be held by an escrow service. It is completely secure with the transaction just being between the two parties with no service provider. Both parties are required to sign off on every transaction before it goes through.

Using Blockchain completely cuts out the middleman by being a peer to peer system that makes transactions a lot simpler. With the removal of a provider you can send money anywhere in the world and will no longer have to pay for the transaction or currency exchange.

Unlike with most banks where you have to wait ‚Äòx‚Äô amount of working days before transactions are finalised, Blockchain takes minutes. Not only can you send and receive payments almost instantly but contracts of all types can be signed and received in minutes.

In recent years we have seen how Cloud storage has been used by Google, Dropbox, Apple and many more companies. However one of the major issues this tech has is that it is susceptible to being hacked as was seen with the 2014 celebrity iCloud leaks. Where Blockchain differs is that you are in control of the data and not a middleman company. You will have a single encryption key to access your information that nobody else can get into.

Most people are part of a number of reward schemes that allow them to collect points to go towards purchases. With Blockchain allowing transactions to be available on public ledgers customers have the ability to trade points amongst themselves. This means that if you have airline points that you don‚Äôt use, you have the opportunity to trade them in for points towards something you would like such as shopping or coffee.

It‚Äôs clear that Blockchain is a piece of tech that isn‚Äôt dying down anytime soon. Within the next few years with its seemingly limitless capabilities it will become more widely used by governments and businesses alike for a whole host of data based systems.